Seven out of the 17 study abroad programs this summer have been canceled, according to the Center for International Studies Web site.
Although it is typical for summer programs to be canceled due to under enrollment, this is still a slight increase in cancellations from last year, Lisa Griffiths, director International Studies said.
Last year, there were five trips out of the 15 planned canceled - a rise from 33 percent to 41 percent cancelled, Griffiths said.
Professor Alexander Selimov's trip to Spain for this summer is still running, but with only 11 of the 21 students who initially said they would be able to go on the trip.
Two of the students were unable to go after finding out they did not receive the scholarships they had applied for, and one student had to drop out because of financial changes in his family.
Despite 10 students dropping out, Selimov was still able to take his group on the trip. The study abroad policy is that one faculty member must attend per every 12 students.
Selimov believes this is because he cut down his program fee so it would be more affordable. He did this by adding to his own work load. He will be teaching the information the trip would typically pay tour guides for, and in doing this, he cut out nearly $1,000 of the program fees present in his similar trip last summer.
"This program will be discovery learning to present the information in a much more academic way and less touristic way," he said. "I am actually happy to have this opportunity."
Daniel Green, a political science professor, said he has also picked up some of the cost in the past in order to make his summer abroad trip possible.
Green's trip for summer 2009 was planned for Brussels, Attenborough and London, but was canceled because of low enrollment.
This year he had approximately 24 people attend interest meetings, but only two students made the deposit.
"For summer, it is almost guaranteed that you are not going to get enough students," Green said.
But even with the difficulty in recruiting students summer programs, Green noticed a decrease in applicants during Winter Session as well.
"I know there is an impact of the crisis because I also do a winter Spain and Rome program, and last year we had 72 applicants, and this year we had 42," he said.
Study abroad officals extended the deadline because of issues with the economy, he said.
Professor Louis Arena also noticed a difference in success between the two summers he ran his Italy program.
Arena cut back on some costs, tours and excursions because of the economy, but still was only able to get nine or 10 students to pay for the trip, which was not enough to run the program.
"We had many more people at interest meetings for the summer who said 'it was iffy', or 'I have to talk to my parents about the cost'," he said.
Business Professor Carter Broach believed the cancellation of his Europe program was just because of the season.
"About 10 years ago I tried to offer a summer study abroad program in Europe and got one applicant," Broach stated in an email message. "I hypothesized then, and suspect even today, that many business majors use the summer to earn money and build their resumes with summer jobs and internships."
Griffiths echoed these thoughts and said summer abroad programs are traditionally canceled between 25 to 50 percent of the time because of under enrollment.
"The problem is that we have a real culture of going abroad in winter session and the summer months evoke a greater opportunity to get jobs and internships," she said.
Arena plans on changing his program offerings for next year with this in mind. He wants to move the program departure date to May 31 so students will have July and August to work summer jobs if they would like to.
Selimov also believed changes needed to be made in order to make summer programs more successful in the future, but was optimistic about the study abroad program.
"I think study abroad is an important piece of academic education for students who seek to find a global perspective, and maybe study abroad programs have to adapt to the new world to make it more affordable by absorbing some expenses like I did with my own work to make sure that students can have that experience," he said.
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